CARB
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For 45 years, the Environmental Protection Agency has been charged with protecting the U.S. from pollution in its air, water, and land. Under the Trump Administration, its administrator Scott Pruitt is aggressively muzzling and removing scientists, eradicating climate-science from its activities, and eliminating dozens of regulations. That makes the role of the California Air Resources Board, long a sort of shadow EPA, even more important than before in pursuing regulations that limit or eliminate vehicular emissions. DON'T MISS: California plans for its post-fossil-fuel future in...
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Toyota to study Mirai-derived fuel-cell tech for heavy-duty trucks
Toyota announced on Thursday that it will begin testing in two California ports a hydrogen fuel-cell heavy-duty truck adapted from the Toyota Mirai's powertrain for drayage use. Initially, Toyota is looking at how it can use hydrogen fuel-cell-powered vehicles to significantly reduce vehicle...
Andrew Ganz -
California mulls ban on new cars with engines, joining China in climate action
With China mulling an eventual ban on sales of cars with gasoline or diesel engines, the world's largest car market made it clear earlier this month that it intends to force a conversion to zero-emission vehicles. Now California, which has led the U.S. in environmental awareness and emission...
John Voelcker -
States to force emission, fuel-economy rules showdown with Trump Administration?
Continuing political turmoil and news coverage of the Trump Administration haven't stopped the president's agency heads from drastically reshaping policies on energy, the environment, and emissions. Comments are now being taken on the reopened EPA limits on vehicular carbon emissions for 2022...
John Voelcker -
Modifications to oldest, dirtiest VW, Audi TDI diesels approved by EPA
VW Group of North America now owns hundreds of thousands of Volkswagen and Audi TDI diesel vehicles it has bought back from owners under the terms of various diesel emission scandal settlements. Yesterday, it got some very good news: the EPA has approved a modification that will it allow it to...
John Voelcker -
Will Trump EPA target CA electric-car, emissions rules? Not yet, maybe; here's why
California began regulating vehicle emissions within its boundaries before the Environmental Protection Agency was even a gleam in President Richard Nixon's eye. Since that agency was founded in 1971 with an executive order by Nixon, the state has retained the right to set its own—more...
John Voelcker -
The sales growth of electric cars has made strides in recent years, and California's Zero-Emission Vehicle mandate has much to do with that. The program adopted by the California Air Resources Board 20 years ago, and much modified since, requires carmakers to earn a certain number of zero-emission credits for vehicles sold in California. What's less well known is that some automakers have already surpassed the expectations, according to David Reichmuth, senior engineer in the Union of Concerned Scientists' Clean Vehicles Program DON’T MISS: UPS electric van with fuel-cell range extender...
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Energy use for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles: higher than electrics, even hybrids (analysis)
It's now clear that the zero-emission vehicles of the future will be powered by electric motors. The electricity to power those motors, however, will come from one of two competing technologies: high-capacity batteries or hydrogen fuel cells. The debate over which technology is superior, which has...
John Voelcker -
Toyota 'Project Portal' hydrogen fuel-cell heavy-duty semi tractor as proof of concept
The challenges of building fueling infrastructure for passenger cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells are well known by now. Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai now lease low volumes of fuel-cell vehicles in selected areas of California where a few dozen hydrogen fueling stations are now up and running. The...
John Voelcker -
California reaffirms state emission, electric-car rules for 2025
The California Air Resources Board voted Friday to confirm its stricter emissions standards for 2025, setting up a potential clash with the Trump Administration. The CARB vote reaffirms a decision by the EPA in the waning days of the Obama Administration to lock in emissions standards for vehicles...
Stephen Edelstein -
California conundrum: 2018 Leaf, Bolt EV, or Mirai fuel-cell car?
California is very different from the rest of the United States. All by itself, it's the sixth largest economy in the world. One eighth of all Americans live there. It's home to Silicon Valley, as well as much of the global entertainment industry, and it produces a large proportion of the nation's...
John Voelcker -
VW's Electrify America submits electric-car charging plan to EPA, CARB: now what?
Volkswagen has submitted a plan for electric-charging infrastructure to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board. VW's "Electrify America" plan shows how the automaker would spend funds it is required to commit to zero-emission vehicle infrastructure under the...
Stephen Edelstein -
California leads the nation in policies that promote reductions of carbon emissions from road vehicles. It is unique in having a federal waiver that allows it to set its own, stricter emissions standards, along with a zero-emission vehicle mandate that requires automakers reaching certain sales volumes to sell a certain number of cars without tailpipes. And where California leads, other states have followed. DON'T MISS: Will California lead the green-car resistance? (Dec 2016) Thirteen states—mostly in the Northeast and Northwest—and the District of Columbia have adopted...
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California goal: eliminate gasoline, diesel light vehicles altogether
What if gasoline and diesel cars and light trucks were simply eliminated altogether from the new vehicles sold in a state? Residents of one state in the U.S. may, eventually, find out. California already leads the nation in promoting zero-emission vehicles, but the Golden State may soon take that...
Stephen Edelstein -
Electric cars improving fast, CA should raise zero-emission requirements: report
For 50 years now, California has been at the very forefront of reducing vehicle emissions. It was doing so before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was even formed, and its powerful Air Resources Board has been a vital force in getting plug-in electric vehicles onto the state's roads...
John Voelcker -
Emission updates for 2015 VW, Audi 2.0-liter TDI diesels OKed by regulators
The $14.7 billion diesel-emission settlement among Volkswagen and regulatory agencies required VW to buy back or modify almost half a million TDI vehicles from model years 2009 through 2015. While the buybacks have received the most attention—and most owners are expected to take...
John Voelcker -
Modern electric cars at 20: from EV1 to Bolt EV, where are we now?
Twenty years ago today, the very first GM EV1 electric cars were delivered to 40 lessees in California in a blaze of publicity. Since then, plug-in electric vehicles have seen more than their share of ups and downs. That first EV1 was a high-tech two-seater created specifically to meet California's...
John Voelcker -
250,000th plug-in electric car to be sold in California alone this month
It's long been obvious that California is the epicenter of emission reduction and electric-car adoption in the United States. And its outsize influence on U.S. environmental policy has global ramifications as well. Of the 1.25 million plug-in vehicles estimated to be on global roads by the end of...
John Voelcker -
It's probably the battle that will do most to determine the carbon emission from new U.S. vehicles over the next decade. Automakers want to modify, delay, or extend the current corporate average fuel economy standards for 2022 through 2025 vehicles; regulators don't. The mid-July release of the EPA's Technical Assessment Report opened a 60-day window for the public at large to comment on whether those standards should change. DON'T MISS: Automaker lobbyist group predicts doom, gloom over CAFE A large lobbying group led by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers had requested that the time...
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Battle over CAFE standards begins now: will they change for 2022-2025?
Two weeks ago today, three federal and state agencies jointly released a "Technical Assessment Report" on how well automakers have done thus far in meeting corporate average fuel economy standards. It concluded that car companies may not quite reach the theoretical goal of an average 54.5 mpg (or...
John Voelcker -
EPA: 2025 target of 54.5 mpg may not be met; SUVs, trucks, cheap gas to blame
A pair of U.S. federal agencies said yesterday that while automakers had complied with the first five years of stricter fuel-efficiency laws, the industry seemed unlikely to meet 2025 targets for improving gas mileage. Rather than hitting the projected 54.5-mpg Corporate Average Fuel...
John Voelcker -
California may cap ZEV-credit sales; why it matters to Tesla, and for electric cars
California may cap ZEV credit sales to eliminate excess credits.
Stephen Edelstein -
Can VW, agencies meet April 21 diesel-fix deadline? EPA head not sure
Nine days remain until the deadline imposed by a judge for Volkswagen and two regulatory agencies to agree on the outline of a plan to modify vehicles affected by the diesel-emission scandal. That deadline was already postponed once, but whether VW, the EPA, and the powerful California Air...
John Voelcker -
VW Diesel Cheating An 'Open Secret' In Engine Group: Report
A German newspaper has reported that the use of "defeat device" software to cheat on U.S. emissions laws was widespread knowledge within the diesel-engine group at Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. And, it said, one whistleblower involved in the deception had alerted a senior manager...
John Voelcker